Gallimimus was a dinosaur that lived 75-70 million years ago, which was
during the late part of the Cretaceous period. The span of its existence was
during these subperiods:
Campanian (83.5 - 71 million years ago)
Maastrichtian (71 - 65 million years ago)
Gallimimus was small, light, and fast. It could run about 43 miles per hour.
Gallimimus was hollow boned and walked upright on two legs. The dimensions of
Gallimimus are:
length: 13 - 20 feet (4 - 6 m.)
height: 9 feet (2.74 m.)
weight: about 970 pounds (440 kg.)
Gallimimus had large eyes on opposite sides of its head. The size of the
eyes indicates that it had good vision. The neck, legs, and tail were long.
Gallimimus had three clawed fingers on each hand. Each foot had three clawed
toes.
Paleontologists believe that Gallimimus was an omnivore. It may have fed on
insects, lizards, eggs, and some plants. The mouth of Gallimimus had comb-like
plates. These could be used to sieve small bits of food (such as crustaceans,
insects, and plants) from mud and water in rivers, lakes, and ponds. Gallimimus
is the only type of dinosaur known to have had such feeding structures.
The brain of Gallimimus was large in proportion to its body. Thus it was
high on the scale of intelligence for dinosaurs.
Fossils of Gallimimus have been found in Mongolia. The name of this dinosaur
literally means "chicken mimic".
The taxonomy of Gallimimus is:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Archosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Theropoda
Infraorder: Coelurosauria
Superfamily: Maniraptoriformes
Family: Ornithomimosauria
Genus: Gallimimus
The species are:
Gallimimus bullatus
Gallimimus mongoliensis
Neal Robbins
P.S. Gallimimus was named by Rinchen Barsbold, Halszka Osmolska, and Ewa
Roniewicz in 1972.
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